VACATION DAY

My "life COT" has been really great and she's been keeping track of my attendance for me well. It turns out I still had a day and 2 hours of vacation time I hadn't used yet. Unfortunately we can't keep it-don't use it, you lose it. So I needed to start using up those times. Luckily for me, 3 of my 4 classes on Wednesday had already finished the semester and the 4th class had been rescheduled to Thursday. It worked out perfectly and I was able to take today off.

My original plan was to meet my old Inje friend, Sumi. How it turned out was that I'm making a trip down to Gimhae on Saturday. I was asking some people if they were around and able to meet in Busan. She replied saying that she wasn't down there, but in Seoul. In Seoul?! So, we made plans to meet. Anyway, I woke up in the morning with a message from her saying she was a bit delayed and would have to give a raincheck.

I skyped with my Mom and we talked for over 2 hours. Time always goes by quickly when we're talking. I'm so looking forward to my visit home. Toby was also featured in the skype session and I watched him not only roll around the floor scratching his face, but tear into a plastic box and try to rip it to shreds.

After skyping I ended up meeting Jacob for lunch since my friend couldn't meet me. We went to Burger B, which is right next to GOAL. We shared their "ultimate Burger" which had a burger, fries and a small shot of milkshake (which was amazing!) and the bbq pulled pork nachos. Everything was delicious and it was a nice treat to see Jacob for lunch. I had been messaging Sumi and it turned out she was headed to Hongdae so I suggested we meet for tea.

Jacob's lunch hour was up so I went to go meet Sumi. She and I went to Cafe Mono; I went here with Kim (from Belgium) in the spring. We ordered a cheesecake that was surprisingly good and drinks. Later, her younger sister joined us. She is only 18 and I could tell! She was a typical freshly entered into college young woman. When she first started speaking English she would just laugh and hide her face and mumble. As time wore on though, her English improved a lot and she wasn't as shy and giddy. Around 5 they suggested we grab dinner and I recommended Oodle Noodle.

We walked to Oodle Noodle and since no one else was in the restaurant, the owner/chef guy gave some recommendations of dishes. Unfortunately, Sumi's dish came out quite spicy, even though she asked for it to not be spicy and I had had it last time and it wasn't spicy at all! After we finished eating, the restaurant started to get a little bit more busy. I noticed a young woman and I thought she looked a lot like my friend Suzie (Mark's girlfriend) so I turned to look at the guy ordering and realized it was Mark. So I called out his name-he was surprised to see me. This is the 3rd time I've run into him in Hongdae. We chatted a bit and I suggested some dishes. Sumi's sister forgot her umbrella at the cafe, so they had to go back and get it. I went on to Myeongdong to go to class.

Class was okay-it actually seemed to go by rather quickly this week. I was so tired even though I didn't do any work. I was glad to get home.